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The 132 Woodcut initials of the Bishops Bible 1572

by: Dr Chris J R Thomas

Publication date: 2024-11-29

Usage: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

Topics: woodcut, initial letter, Holie Bible, 1572, Bishops Bible

Collection: folkscanomy_religion_bible; folkscanomy_religion; folkscanomy; additional_collections

Item Size: 63.3M

The 1572, second edition of the Bishops Bible has 1311 woodcut initials throughout its 1442 pages. What is surprising is the variety of different types for each represented letter of the alphabet, as shown in Table 1. The most frequently used initials are A, 14 types – 433 occurrences, I, 15 types – 133 occurrences, T 15 types – 276 occurrences.

All the letters, bar three, are Roman initials, in contrast to the black letter font of most of the bible text. The three exceptions are where the initial forms part of a design incorporating a coat of arms, one large O and two different large T, listed as loosely historiated in figure 1.

The remaining woodcut initials comprise an almost equal balance of 57 floriated (having a floral pattern) and 58 inhabited designs (where there are animal or mythical or human figures included). Including the three coat of arms designs, there are 16 historiated initials, showing recognisable scenes from mythology, including the controversial G with Leda and the swan, and two that are a variation of Eve and the serpent.

This work was conducted as a volunteer of the Norris Museum, St ives, Cambridgeshire, and began with the Museum's copy of the 1572 version of the Bihops Bible (the 2nd edition after the 1568 original), instigated by Archbishop Matthew Parker and printed by Richard Jugge's workshop at St Paul's Cathedral graveyard.